Getting a customer through the door is only half the job. For most South African SMMEs, the real margin sits in the customers who come back — and who tell their neighbours, colleagues and WhatsApp groups to come too. This recorded webinar breaks down how to do both, acquisition and retention, as one continuous relationship rather than two separate jobs.
Presented by SME South Africa in partnership with Edwin De Lange, a Board Member of Customer Experience South Africa (CXSA), the country’s professional body for customer experience practitioners. Edwin works with businesses on the customer experience side of growth, and this session applies that lens specifically to small, owner-run businesses — mystery-shop style diagnostics, not textbook marketing theory.
Whether you’re just starting out or scaling an existing operation, the session gives you a practical way to look at your own customer base and identify exactly where you’re leaking loyalty.
What You’ll Learn
- Targeting: How to identify and reach your ideal customers.
- Acquisition: Practical ways to improve your acquisition efforts across different marketing channels — see also our breakdown of what customer acquisition actually costs.
- Relationship Building: Strategies to build stronger, more authentic customer relationships.
- Conversion: How to turn first-time buyers into reliable, repeat customers.
- Loyalty: Creating customer experiences that naturally encourage loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.
- Metrics: How to track acquisition and retention data to actively support your business growth.
Put it into practice: the SMME Trust & Loyalty Audit
Edwin built a short scorecard specifically for this session — a field tool you can use on your own business (or a mystery-shop visit to a competitor) to score reliability, community ties and authenticity, the three drivers of township and BoP customer loyalty this webinar covers. It takes about 10 minutes, and your results are emailed to you as a PDF report.
Take the SMME Trust & Loyalty Audit →
For more on keeping the customers you already have, see our guide on practical ways to retain customers.
Watch the full recording below and start applying these strategies to build a business that grows through lasting customer relationships.
